News & Events

Minister English announces €50 Million Expansion of the Science Foundation Ireland ADAPT Research Centre for Digital Content Technology

ADAPT to make Ireland a world leader in next generation digital content technologies

  • €24 million from Science Foundation Ireland and €26 million from industry supports ADAPT’s expansion

  • 200 highly skilled postgraduate students to be trained at ADAPT over next six years

  • New investment to foster development of spin-out companies and creation of 300 high skill jobs

The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre, ADAPT, was launched today (Wednesday) by Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD. ADAPT will focus on developing next generation digital content technologies that aim to enhance people’s lives by helping to analyse, personalise and deliver digital content more effectively for businesses and individuals. 

ADAPT is supported by the Irish government through a Science Foundation Ireland investment of €24 million. This funding is leveraged with an additional €26 million from 19 industry partners. 

Speaking at the launch, Minister English said “This funding demonstrates the continued commitment shown by government to establish Ireland as a leading location for next generation digital content technologies. It will assist in powering an innovative and enterprising economy and help to create high-tech, high-quality employment opportunities in the future.” 

The digital age has created a flow of online content that some companies and individuals find overwhelming to manage. The development of new technologies aimed at tackling this wave of online content will empower individuals and industries to be more efficient and expand their global reach as content becomes more inclusive across languages and personalised to an individual’s needs. 

Director of ADAPT and Professor of Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin, Professor Vincent Wade said; “Enterprises and individuals are being overwhelmed by the volume, variety and fragmented delivery of digital content across apps, mobile devices and the vast array of media streams. ADAPT is a unique research centre focused on the entire value chain of content - from dynamically extracting the meaning from global content streams and translating across language barriers, to personalising the content delivery and facilitating advanced user interaction. Using its world leading expertise, ADAPT is researching new ways for enterprises and individuals to rapidly gain advantage in the competitive global digital marketplace.” 

The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre ADAPT already works with a range of respected industry partners from large multinationals such as Intel, PayPal, and Huawei, to SMEs such as Learning, Xanadu and Iconic. It will also seek opportunities to work with other industry partners in order to further diversify and strengthen its research, and identify new uses for the technologies underdevelopment. 

Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the government added, “Today’s announcement of the expanded Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre ADAPT will help lead the way in Ireland’s global intelligent content revolution. We are delighted to support ADAPT in this new phase of its development as we believe that it is ideally positioned to nurture real collaboration across industry and academia with its dedication to expanding opportunities in priority sectors for Ireland, including ICT, localisation, financial services, eCommerce, media, entertainment and games, life sciences, digital culture and humanities, and eLearning/eEducation.” 

“The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre programme, of which ADAPT is part, represents the largest ever state and industry co-funded research investment in Ireland. The programme is supporting an investment of €355 million from Science Foundation Ireland matched by €190 million from industry in twelve world class Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres of excellence and scale,” continued Prof. Ferguson. 

ADAPT Centre for Digital Content Technology is led out of Trinity College Dublin and headed up by Professor Vincent Wade. It combines the world class expertise of researchers at four universities - Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University (DCU), University College Dublin (UCD), and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

Ends 

For media queries contact 

ADAPT

Olivia Waters, Marketing and Communications Manager at ADAPT, olivia.waters@adaptcentre.ie or phone 087 9153599. 

Science Foundation Ireland

Niamh Bradley or Alva O’Cleirigh

01-6073228/086-0271744 or 01 607 3249/087-9152553

Niam.bradley@sfi.ie or Alva.ocleirigh@sfi.ie 

About ADAPT Centre for Digital Content Technology

ADAPT, the Centre for Digital Content Technology, provides a partnership between academia and industry in the field of digital content technology, leading on ground-breaking innovations in areas such as localization, social media analysis, multimodal interaction, intelligent content and media, and informal and formal learning.

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the centre is led out of Trinity College Dublin and combines the world-class expertise of researchers at Dublin City University, University College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology. 

ADAPT has significant commercial expertise, having generated 7 spinout companies, multiple licenses and a large number of applied research collaborations.  ADAPT’s unique Design & Innovation Lab works with companies to bridge research and technology to enhance commercial success.  www.adaptcentre.ie  

About Science Foundation Ireland

Science Foundation Ireland funds oriented basic and applied research in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) which promotes and assists the development and competitiveness of industry, enterprise and employment in Ireland. The Foundation also promotes and supports the study of, education in and engagement with, STEM and promotes an awareness and understanding of the value of STEM to society and in particular to the growth of the economy. For more information visit www.sfi.ie.